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The search for 216 votes in the House to repeal and replace Obamacare is underway. Odds appear the search will fall short, perhaps very short.
The problem for Republicans is not a single Democrat supports the bill. All 216 votes will need to come from Republicans, of which there are 237. That means there can only be 21 Republican dissents.

If you give Paul Ryan the benefit of the doubt and all the undecideds, all the concerned, and all the supporters end up voting to repeal and replace, you reach 210 votes. That is six short. So at least six of the no votes need to change their minds.

There is a far greater chance the replacement vote is delayed, postponed, or never happens at all than it passes. We will find out soon enough, as in tomorrow. That’s when Ryan has scheduled a vote.

Off the top of my head, I suggest odds of passage tomorrow are well under 5%. The odds the vote is scrapped are about even.

I suspect I overstate the scrappage odds because I rely on common sense, that Ryan will not want to have his bill go down in massive flames by a huge margin. However, relying on common sense from arrogant politicians could be asking for too much.

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I thought that was his plan… but its hard to reconcile that idea with Trump going to Congress and “threatening” members, reportedly going so far as to single out Mark Meadows (“I’m coming after you, Mark!”).

Trump was not elected by Paul Ryan (who campaigned against Trump). The media does not and will not support Trump. Washington insiders (swamp people?) do not like Trump. Trump was elected by people who want Obamacare repealed, make America great again, drain the swamp, etc.

Mark Meadows (and other’s voting “No”) are aware that many are up for re-election in 2018, and if Trump goes back on his promises to voters, than an endorsement from Trump is worth less than zero. Trump should know that too.

Trump made himself look foolish, put the entire rest of his agenda (tax reform, regulatory reform, military spending, etc) in jeopardy — all for a bill that probably won’t pass and the country can’t afford to keep even if it had support. Seems like a really dumb move by Trump, Ryan was hanging himself and all Trump had to do was stay quiet.

Obamacare is dying due to bankruptcy, and its still dead if they re-label it after a failed presidential candidate like Ryan

Reportedly by whom? The same MSM that misconstrued all of what he said during the campaign and lied about it instead.
Do we know what context the Mark Meadows remark was made? I have heard that it was said in jest. Was he actually mocking Ryan? At some point did Ryan use that threat and now Trump is mockingly repeating that threat to Meadows, at which point they can laugh at how weak Ryan actually appears to be with that threat?
I take everything Trump is “reported to have said” unless I hear it straight from Trump and in the larger context of the whole exchange.

It’s funny how we all forget how legislation is supposed to be crafted. The House puts forth their bill and the Senate often another bill. Then their is compromise and improvements until you get a bill that can pass both houses.

24 hours to go for the House version …. my guess is that enough will be added that it passes.

Big surprise that the Democrats will not support. Their entire strategy is to oppose everything. They are doing what the Repubs did to Obama only on Steroids.

Pile enough pork on top of the holdouts, and they’ll roll. Just like they did with the bankster bailouts, UAW bailout, and any other conceivable bailout in history. Like all governments, the Republicans are a Government Of the Government, For the Government. And nothing more whatsoever.

I hope the establishment compromises. They don’t have the 60 votes in the Senate and apparently have to use the reconciliation process which limits what they can do. They really need to deliver on reducing costs because that is what voters will judge this by. These opportunities do not happen often.

There’s nothing in this insult of a “replacement” even tangentially aimed at reducing cost of care. Nothing. It’s just attempt by Ryan, borne of nothing but vanity, have the current program renamed from Obamacare to Ryancare.

Obamacare is an entitlement. Republicans have bought into the idea that healthcare is now a RIGHT which means that WE will have to pay for anyone and everyone who wants it….which means it WILL FAIL. It was designed to fail. There are countless recording of those including Obama who stated that this was a first step towards single payer. Every crisis is a created crisis to create opportunity.
Republicans are screwed because they touched it, and with that, the progressives will hang every healthcare outcome that is sub-optimal around their necks. Preexisting conditions and all of the other enticements of Obamacare are the bennies that republicans dare not eliminate. They can preach about personal responsibility all day but they will STILL come for your money when the bills come due….and they are coming due “big league”. We are trapped. There is no way out. Our allies are weak and our enemies are encouraged.
Government is designed to create destruction and the game is whom will be blamed. The destruction is what creates the opportunity, but those opportunities must be paid for, and republicans are allowed their offices of power explicitly to TAKE THAT BLAME.
What is missing in this conversation is the fact that Obamacare created this crisis, a crisis that was claimed to exist as an excuse to create Obamacare. Why are we NOT having this conversation? Why are we not lambasting the democrats EVERY DAMNED DAY about this? Crickets. Everything on the news is about a dysfunctional republican party that unsurprisingly cannot come up with a solution to this….because the solution is to eliminate the entitlements….which WILL NOT HAPPEN.

There is some thought that Trump is deliberately designing his policies to fail obviously including Trumpcare. It really is such a dog, it seems ridiculous to think it will succeed.
I’m not sure of such a motivation, but since Trump doesn’t owe Republicans any favours he might be mollifying them by pushing their agenda and when it fails he can say he tried, but now lets do what I want.[?]

Well,MotherJones would know, now wouldn’t they.
Anyone who thinks Trumps wants to lose at ANYTHING, simply hasn’t been paying attention.
What would be interesting would be stories about how Trump is trying very hard to come up with a plan that can get enough votes to come up with ANY BILL to pass, given Obamacare is a disaster careening towards major issues.
It is sad and a bit comical to see so many so sure that Trump a disaster. So many claimed he had no intention of even winning the presidency, then claimed he had no chance of winning, and once he had won, are now convinced he entered into a deal with the devil (Putin) to win. Republicans have continually been accused of being obstructionist to democratic agendas, but we have NEVER seen this overt level of pure obstructionism, not based on any policy or principle, but simply hate.

Everybody eventually dies. So infinite costs is a bit of an exaggeration. Not providing for some preexisting conditions will bring death a little sooner however. Which might happily save someone a few bucks.

Usually these must-pass bills do as they ‘must’ via bribery in the form of committee assignments, earmark spending, etc. However, this is 2017 and things may be different. Sure hope Paul Ryan has a rotten day.

Is a promise of committee chair from Ryan worth anything? How long does ryan have left as speaker? Even if ryan survives, what good are ryan’s “promises” if the bribe receiver doesn’t get re-elected?

Washington has been in its own little orbit for a very long time. If the status quo was working, Witch Pelosi would be speaker and Cruz or Rubio would be in the White House.

All the bribery got Pelosi branded as a public enemy; she is in no position to offer committee chairs anymore. All she has is illegal campaign money.

Ryan’s promises of a committee chair “next year” aren’t worth anything — Ryan can’t even guarantee his own job, nor can he guarantee slush funds and illegal campaign funds (which will do little for a candidate who just betrayed his/her constituency anyway).

Agree that DC is still crooked as hell, but Congress members still have to get re-elected in order to play

No such thing as a Trump republican… the RNC tried very had to get Trump out of the race. Rubio or Cruz or Ryan. They did not want Trump.

Both political parties are undergoing revolutions right now. Both have lost all connection to the people they supposedly represent. Its lying cheating unethical politicians fighting DC beltway wars, completely oblivious to the USA outside of Washington DC.

The “no” votes know Trump is going his own support base with Ryancare. The “leaning No” group does too. Trump will lose support for the rest of his agenda if he doesn’t back away from ryancare.

…

Mr Trump: read our lips, kiss our intern, find your WMDs and keep your current doctor — you will repeal obamacare or you will be a lame duck president before you hit the 100 day mark. If we wanted yet another lying politician….

Well, we know they have been telling us they were going to repeal ACA, but we also know they could have stopped it through congressional spending restrictions….and didn’t. They CAN’T because they know that those losing their insurance will be on THEIR heads. Healthcare has been declared an entitlement, and they have demonstrated repeatedly that they will not do that.
The best we will get with be these modifications, and hard core conservatives may be admired for their principles, but exercising your principles in the face of sure defeat is commonly known as suicide. I’m not sure what they think they will win in this. It’s pretty obvious that a more aggressive repeal plan will not pass, and there is NO plan the Democrats will support. So I guess the harcore conservatives would rather have Obamacare than anything less than a perfection that’s not possible. When you ave 27 defeat this bill and nearly 200 support it, the 27 will not be heroes. Politics suck but we should be used to getting something fr less than we had hoped for. What I find interesting is that it seems that those who did not vote for Trump are far more critical of his failures. I would have thought those who did not support him would see his failures as completely predictable, but instead they seem pissed about it.

(1) I don’t care if illegal immigrants keep their insurance, if it means that my taxpaying neighbors and I can’t afford our coverage.

(2) the one and only thing obamacare fraud has proven is that having access to overpriced health insurance with obscene deductibles is not the same as having access to a doctor.

More and more voters are starting to understand this important distinction, even if the (ahem) politically minded do not.

When you or your loved ones really really need a medical doctor — obamacare will get you an insurance rep instead (for a price you can’t afford).

In 2018, as election day nears… Medicare is forecast by the government’s own accounts to go cashflow bankrupt. Politicians up for election are going to vote for massive medicare tax increases to pay for an empty promise (that we supposedly already paid for once)?

Its a cost problem, not an insurance problem. Screwing the middle class with obamacare 30% yearly tax increases is going to cause a massive economic depression no matter which politician’s name is on it

Health insurance is a wealth redistribution scheme, and the ONLY reason why anyone has EVER bought it is because they thought it would cost them less than paying directly for their actual healthcare. When government DEMANDS that ALL are provided healthcare, that necessarily means that those who can afford to pay more will be forced to do so, but that also means that as those costs rise, fewer WILL be able to afford it and be forced onto government entitlement programs which force even more costs onto those stil on the paying side of the line. This system has put virtually NO cost restraints on the healthcare providers. having had relatively minor surgical procedures in the last few years i can tell you hospital costs are insane….and virtually NO ONE pays those costs out of pocket.
What fixes this is pain. What fixes this is free markets that allow competition. wouldn’t it be grand to get a fixed price estimate for a procedure. The say “oh, we can’t as we have no idea what we might run into”. Well I will tell you, there are many many businesses that must provide quotes for their work while “not knowing what they might run into”. The medical establishment has used insurance as a shield from open and free markets, as well as the AMA setting up noncompetive rules.
People should be encouraged to use HSA type plans using pretax dollars to create a savings account for medical emergencies, and then allowed to shop for competitive insurance that provides coverage for the big dollar stuff. Further, if government just insists on being involved, it could provide low interest loans to those needing emergency healthcare. If we can give it away to students, we should be able to do it for the sick.
Ultimately people need to pay for their own healthcare, NOT everyone else’s.

Everyone knows the solution for a leaking dam is more rain.
There is just something about progressives that makes the notion of sustainability incomprehensible. I think it’s because they have had such a long history of simply printing and borrowing money to fill the shortfalls of every failed policy and agenda. Run out of money, just print more…or better yet, raise taxes. After all, there are so many conservatives with too much money that they probably didn’t earn anyway.

Jimmy Carter put Paul Volcker into the Fed, ending inflation that Gerry Ford tried to fight with a stupid lapel pin. Carter ended the tyranny of the Rail Road commission, and started the deregulation ball rolling BEFORE Reagan entered the election ring. And Carter was the guy who got Egypt and Israel to stop going to war every few minutes.

Carter got the neutered US military that Vietnam and Ford left for him — making the Iranian hostage rescue an embarrassment. But given the military Carter inherited post Vietnam, it would have been bad no matter who was in the White House.

The Iranian hostage mess grew out of the US government reinstating the Shah over Iranian elections (not saying those elections were good or bad — just saying it was the US decision to reinstate the Shah, not Iran’s. Same for a trouble maker named Saddam Hussein being supported to consolidate Iraq. Both the Iran and the Iraq messes happened under JFK — Carter just happened to be there when it all blew up in the US’s face.

As a President, Carter was not very good at self promotion. Compared to the TV savvy nutcases running around Washington DC (and a California actor) — Carter’s self promotion abilities might as well have been non-existent.

Whatever one’s political leanings… self promotion is not one of Trump’s weaknesses.

Trump’s decision to support ryancare (which is unaffordable, just like obamacare) amounts to a betrayal of Trump’s own support base.

Trump’s supporters sent him to Washington to REPEAL obamacare, not rename it

Medex you left a few things out of Jimmy’s bio: Although Panama had a treaty with the US giving the US control “in perpetuity” of the Canal the US built in the country the US created, Jimmy thought it would be a nice gesture to give it away to a corrupt Panamanian government.

I wrote that, high on the list of Jimmy Carter’s failures, is the fact that is was and is terrible at self promotion. I wrote that Trump does not share that weakness.

I think its funny that I simply listed a few pluses about Carter (all of which are true), and suddenly I get attacked as a Carter supporter — of which I am definitely not. I left out lots of Carter minuses (to prove I could do a better job promoting Carter than Carter did) — I still think Carter is a half wit.

I repeat, for the umpteenth time: Carter sucked at self promotion. Trump does not have that weakness. Trump is not going to be a latter day version of Jimmy Carter.

I find it truly amazing that so many find Trump a complete failure after…how many days…???
And have we EVER seen a president with such a honeymoon. I mean the press simply LOVES him and the democrats are bending over backwards to facilitate his every wish, and just LOOK at how he has wasted it all so…with so little to show for it….after SO much time. Days have now turned to MONTHS (2) and no world changing healthcare bill. What a loser.
It is notable that Obama’s first term agenda was still struggling and incomplete at the END of eight years, yet HE is the political savant genius.
It is amazing how ideological and political bias can stifle any display of intelligence.

Trump believes in momentum and it is important to get this done. And I do not think he believes that congress will become any more compliant with time…probably the opposite.He sees it as doing what is possible. He also sees that he will blamed for ANYTHING negative that happens in this half century (or maybe longer), so allowing Obamacare to fail and fall back on the democrats simply will never happen. They have never been blamed for anything else. So what would YOU do? Let Obamacare rot on the vine knowing it will still be blamed on YOU, or do you try to do something that improves it, maybe not eliminate it, but at least keep it from imploding and taking out the entire economy?
Ultimately I think trumps succeeds ultimately rides on ONE THING and that is the economy. If it prospers, people will care less about health insurance costs. If it tanks, people (with substantial reinforcement from the progressive media) will blame Trump, even though we ALL know this turd is barely floating now. Trump understands that he is expected to fail, it has been preordained by every liberal pundit on the planet.
Think what you want of Trump, but he is NOT an idealogue. He is a pragmatists who believes in getting things done, and he is not doing it for the money. He’s going to do a lot of things I don’t agree with most likely for reasons I do agree with. Survival.

Letting the Democrats “win” and keep Obamacare as is would indeed be interesting, and given the GOP divide it does seem to have a high likelihood. Hard to see how letting Obamacare go on as is can benefit Democrats in the 2018 elections. So perhaps rules changes and executive orders by Trump will be the only way left going forward. Might be smart politics to let Democrats in congress “win” now by keeping Obamacare, and then perhaps lose the 2018 elections. Democrat program agreed on by Obama and congress in January was letting the GOP “own” Obamacare and then having the media propaganda machine “rebrand” it as Trumpcare. GOP divide blocks Democrat plan, and may doom Democrats going forward “if” voters blame the Democrats. Of course, some GOP may also get blame and go the way of former House majority whip Eric Cantor who lost in the primaries.

Sorry, your post looked like a list of Carter accomplishments, an endorsement as such. Not something we see a lot of, even from liberals.
I was trying to find work under a Carter presidency. I remember him well.

But if Ryan is dumb enough to plant a land mine in his own path, Trump shouldn’t jump on it to protect the “old party” that tried to push him out of primaries. Trump should grab Ryan by the shoulder, push Ryan, let him fall on his own grenade.

If Trump dispatches of a corrupt insider like Ryan, it would make the rest of his agenda much easier to pass (who wants to mess with a President who sends the house speaker into retirement?)

But I do not understand Trump’s decision to threaten the ryancare “no” camp. Its a bad bill, written by a Trump adversary. Let the bill die along with Ryan’s career.

Do you think this bill not passing is a danger to Trump? The person who is being set up here is Paul Ryan via the dogs breakfast known as Ryancare. If this fails the House then Trump can watch Ryan hoisted by his own petard. Trump has forged his mettle in the blast furnace that is the construction/development industry – you win some – you lose some – then move on to the next battle. Sure the press and the Democrats will screech about it – but the last election has shown that they are largely irrelevant.

Last week Trump’s team turned the G20 agenda on its head. And the UK GCHQ (remember their anonymous statement “These allegations are ridiculous and should be ignored”?) last week appointed a new head – strange coincidence isn’t it? This is all kabuki theatre while Trump’s team moves behind the scenes to implement change – kill sancuary cities, sort out the illegals, scrap regualtory excess, etc. He can do all these things without Congressional approval. Where he cuts budgets rather than increasing them; who needs Congressional approval?

Aside from Ryan, Comey should have resigned. He’s really on the hot seat now and may end up in very serious trouble.

I’m a Trump advocate but was disappointed that he was a cheerleader for RyanCare. Trump said that he would give us a wonderful health care package with affordable prices. I went to one of his rallies and heard it with my own ears.

AHCA is just another crap sandwich fed to the peasants. At least the democrats put a little mayo on the one they served us. Just awful. Looks like the insurance and pharma corporations wrote the legislation again. I wonder who got the campaign donations this time around and in what amounts? We never find out until after the fact.

The Commonwealth Fund study consistently shows that of all the industrialized nations America provides a lousy quality of medicine (in comparison) and pays enormous per capita costs for health care (in comparison). Nations that pay half of our per capita give their citizens much better health care. How is that possible?

We’re supposed to be the leader of the free world. Why do we always end up with the crap sandwiches?

I can only suppose he has done the math and determined this is the best he can get passed. Recall initially he was going to simply repeal it and then replace, but after congressional haggling, was brought to believe that they could not get any comprehensive healthcare bill past the democrats, so everything legislative would have to be done through reconciliation. It probably will be shit, but it will also probably be the best we can get. Disappointing for sure.

As several other republicans are already doing, Trump should demand that Congress simply pass the same “repeal” bill that they already passed (both house and senate) last fall. Obama is not around to veto it this time.

Its an easy win, it would gut the traitor Ryan, and it would rally Trump’s supporters both inside and outside Washington. Who cares if the establishment gets upset, they aren’t with Trump anyhow.

Then Trump would be free to focus on tax reform (with a “win” at his back) — and some of the money being spent on anti-american activities (the UN, the EPA, etc etc) could be used in block grants to help cities pay for urgent care (instead of paying for corruption as it does now).

Trump might even push through some reforms aimed at reducing health costs:
(1) Cap salaries for hospital administrators would be a massive win (the money involved isn’t peanuts, but more importantly it removes a source of endless corruption and welfare)
(2) Force drug companies to publish efficacy results. A lot of new drugs cost 10x as much, but they work 1.2x as well. Let consumers determine if they want to pay ten times as much for something that is only marginally better.
(3) no more punitive legal damages. If the doctor made a mistake, they pay. If they are really incompetent, take their medical license. But shifting millions into the courts and ambulance chaser’s pockets just encourages defensive medicine
(4) As several suggested here: require all doctors and hospitals to post prices in advance.
(5) expand HSA accounts, and let everyone pay cash (out of HSA funds) for normal health spending. Insurance is to cover unexpected risks, not yearly physicals.

There are lots more ideas mentioned here and elsewhere. The middle class taxpayer has to be put first priority. The poor can get urgent care (if politically accepted) by block grants to health chains — but I don’t believe Congress really cares about that anyway. Congress is protecting its own bureaucracy and power, and killing the middle class to do it.

Health costs need to be brought under control. Costs are a national security threat. Insurance is just overpriced smoke and mirrors distracting us away from the real threat.

Agree, but realistically, that would just give pencil pushers more work. Doctor and hospital customers know and are comfortable with the real prices, so there’s no need to post the fake prices for viewing by the accounting placeholders, AKA “patients”.

If the republicans accept whatever bribes from Ryan — because we all seem to agree ryancare cannot pass on its own merits — how will that play out in 2018 for the turn-coat republicans?

Do they really want Trump on the campaign trail with them after betraying voters?

Does Trump think the rest of his agenda will somehow pass with the support of the media or swamp creatures (Washington DC establishment)? If ryancare passes, the rest of Trump’s agenda is good as dead.

Trump put himself into a terrible situation, where he must mend fences with the “no” camp just to save his presidency.

Bribing members of Congress to jam obamacare thru did not save witch pelosi, and basically destroyed the rest of obama’s agenda.

Trump was a savvy businessman before running for office. I would expect him to think about whether Ryan was, is, or ever will be in a position to guarantee funding for Trump’s border wall. The obvious answer is that Ryan cannot offer such a guarantee.

Not arguing whether a border wall is a good or bad idea in itself — just saying Ryan can’t guarantee funding.

Lets not forget than Ryan tried to campaign against Trump’s wall idea. Ryan was silenced (in the media anyway) when Trump (and Ryan’s primary opponent) both pointed to the massive wall Ryan had built around his home. Ryan wanted to protect himself while leaving the rest of his state (and the rest of the country) unprotected. Typical corrupt politician thinking.

There is the problem for Trump. Casual “yeah whatever” support for the republican party is one thing, but Trump actually threatening republican congress members if they don’t back obamacare under a different label?

Trump shot himself in the foot. The only question now is whether the wound will infect his whole presidency, or will Trump be able to extricate himself and let ryancare fail on its own lack of merits.

Whether its labeled obamacare or ryancare — 30% premium increases year after year, higher deductibles, and fewer doctors is a recipe for an economic depression.

I would think any politician who wants to keep their perks is going to want this insurance scam to have the other party’s name on it.

I wasn’t aware that we had elected Trump as emperor of king. My understanding is that they must promote legislation through both houses and then hopefully sign the bill. Given that there are only 27 holdouts on this bill, do you REALLY THINK they will do anything better than this? How is this Trump’s fault, other than simply looking for someone to blame? Should he have pushed for a straight repeal and then taken his chances getting anything else passed with democrat support? have you been paying ANY attention? Democrats won’t vote for a Trump dogcatcher. Please explain how the congress’s unwillingness to repeal Obamacare is a Trump failure/disaster. Trump wasn’t even supposed to win, has minimal REPUBLICAN support in congress and they ALL are looking for a good excuse to get rid of him. But I’m sure he appreciates all of your patience and support over these many long sixty days or so.

You have every right to be disappointed, but as an oldtimer, you should be used to it by now. every president sine Washington has likely promised the moon and fell well short. Most reasonable people understand campaign promises and their short half life, but I think Trump is genuinely trying to get his done, although obviously not as effectively as we would hope.
The reality of our situation is that our economy is built of straw and there are pyromaniacs striking matches all around us. If Trump can just keep it all from burning down I’ll be impressed. Everyone around is trying to burn him and it doesn’t look like they care all that much if the rest of us are taken by the fire as well. They are enraged. He is NOT one of them. He has no respect for them or their corrupt institutions as he has been forced to deal with them his entire career. Their extortion racket is legion.

Simply putting forth the exact same bill they passed last November (and Obama vetoed) would be better than ryancare.

They must address skyrocketing health CARE costs, and stop bickering over insurance scams. ryancare doesn’t address costs, it just shifts insurance costs around a little bit — other than that its the same stupid idea that is already not working.

Madash, please stop reacting so emotionally. Its business. No country on earth can afford to keep the unlimited welfare system Washington DC wants — regardless of obama/ryan naming. And as a businessman, Trump should understand that cost is the problem.

I hope Trump realizes his error and lets Ryan go down in flames. I just don’t understand what the ^)*( Trump was thinking when he threatened the “no” camp. Trump is going to spend all his political capital on a “new” plan, same as the old plan that Trump knows is unaffordable?

Just repeal obamacare in its entirety. The bill already passed both House and Senate last fall, only to get vetoed by Socialist Obama. That is what Trump should be pushing, that is what Trump the candidate promised, and that is what his supporters expect.

My point is that this system cannot be fixed BECAUSE it is a welfare system, an entitlement, that like ALL entitlements, will NEVER be revoked. The republicans about shit themselves when SCOTUS last reviewed Obamacare, threatening the exchanges. Republicans were frantically trying to come up with a funding plan, taxing small businesses to come up with the money to fund those insurance plans that would get axed if the exchanges were found unconstitutional. They lucked out and SCOTUS upheld.
Trump, like almost every other Republican has run on Obamacare repeal, but Trump ALSO said that no one would lose insurance. There is no way to square that circle. They MUST keep the free shit in and that means we are going to be stuck with some derivative of Obamacare. As far as the technical stuff inside of this, I’m sure it is as ugly as all the rest, but some of the parts sounded pretty good. Regardless of what Trump WANTS, he is on the fornt lines, he KNOWS what is possible and what is not. I want the whole damn thing gone but it AIN’T happening, and I knew THAT the day they passed the damned thing. Wishing for what isn’t going to happen and being willing to burn it all down because of disappointment seems foolish to me. Being self employed for forty years, I have learned to live with compromise and disappointment….every day.

No one cares if they lose insurance. A lot of people would like to stop paying for health insurance.

What everyone wants and needs, is access to health care. If your child is sick or injured, pick one: an insurance card, or a doctor? Unless you are a sociopath or a politician, you want your child to see a doctor.

Stop buying into the political scam that you somehow need insurance to get care. They are not the same thing. Until FDR’s socialist wage caps, everyone in America paid for doctors out of pocket.

If you keep insisting that health **insurance** is a human right, you had better be prepared to go without health care.

I hope I live long enough to see the entire health care system in the USA implode. Because that’ll be the first step to fixing it once and for all.

I want to see about half the insurance companies go belly up. Will that cause significant pain? Sure it will. But feeling pain is required to have any hope for recovery.

I can’t even take my doctor’s prescription into Canada to buy my AMERICAN MADE pharmaceuticals at half the price I pay here and bring them back across the fing border without being branded a criminal subject to prosecution by the state.

The USA is now spending an indefensible 18% of GDP on health care, versus 10-12% in other western welfare states — and even lower percentages in better run countries.

The USA spends about 6% of GDP on military spending, a number that many people find crazy.

Well, if you take the 18% of US GDP on healthcare spending, minus 12% spent in other welfare countries — the difference is 6%!!! The amount the US spends on military spending, in total, is roughly the same that we spend on health above and beyond what other western welfare states do.

Only a corrupt person or an idiot would suggest the US needs to spend even more on health care. There is enough fraud and waste in US health care spending to fund the US military.

Its a cost problem, its a fraud problem. Obamacare is a crime and must be repealed before it destroys the entire US economy.

We are all going to die, so we just have to figure out how much we are willing to spend to stay alive…. Temporarily. Will that choice be yours or government? We see an awful lot of people who while DEMANDING access to healthcare evidently put much higher value on a new car or simy entertainment. Look at stats for entertainment and then let’s talk about healthcare costs.
What IS it we value? I ask because evidently not much given it is our LIFE. I understand the complaint as it is a significant cost, but much of the complaint is due to the necessity of paying for something we get nothing for, sometimes for decades….Until we DO. We main about people who go bankrupt with medical costs…. Again to save their LIVES, while many millions more go bankrupt over highly discretionary expenditures.
We need reform severely, but we also need some unified prioritization. We are being FORCED into this very high priced system by collectivists who are only concerned with getting someone else to pay their bills.
Fairness would be paying my own bills, but as is we are only trying to conjure a means of finding someone else to pay for what has become unaffordable for some and others, while having the ability to pay have simply prioritized other expenditures higher.

A big reason costs are so high is because insurance has allowed these costs to be diverted to others. When a small percentage of those insured are actually using healthcare, a significant increase in medical cost can be spread over many policies.

Unless the underlying problem is addressed, it doesn’t matter what’s passed. The problem is health care costs are too high, Inventing new ways to pay for something we can’t afford doesn’t solve anything.

The biggest portion of costs are prescription drug costs. Treating someone with cancer costs $100,000/yr typically. Currently 1 in 3 people in the US are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. The number is expected to increase to 1 in 2 in the near future. How can we possibly afford this?

My wife takes chemo in a pill form. One pill a day. 30 pills costs over $8k in the US. The exact same bottle of 30 pills costs about $1K in India. Thankfully Insurance pays for it, but multiply this cost by a million and it’s no wonder insurance costs are so high.

Medicare is required to pay the lowest cost charged in the US for a drug. So naturally the drug industry jacks up prices everywhere in the US and charges much less in other countries. Knowing the government is required to pay the inflated costs. Trump is trying to fight this, but too many in congress are owned by the pharmaceutical industry for anything to pass.

EIGHT years of griping and pretending they were outraged by it… when it was safe to do so because they weren’t in power. Now, ZERO political courage to make the TOTAL revamp of the medicare system so badly required when they own Congress and the Executive branches. Worthless, big talking cowards just as I expected who are just as afraid of, dependent upon, and owned by the VAST swamp as the Dems.

Few Americans were fans of the recently deceased Cuban El Presidente Fidel Castro but he did leave one positive legacy and that is Cuba’s quality healthcare system. The poor country of Cuba has managed to guarantee access to care for all segments of the population and obtain results similar to those of the most developed nations.

The truth is being a doctor is not as fun as you might think and it does not guarantee you respect and instant riches. The article below delves into ways we can fix our broken healthcare system and avoid a huge shortage of physicians in coming years.

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